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4 May 2004

SPEECH BY THE CHIEF SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY PAUL BOATENG AT the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C

Taking the science agenda forward: the UK experience

1. I am delighted to be here at the Marian Koshland Museum –truly a wonderful venue- to discuss the importance of science and to share with you some thoughts on how we in the UK are seeking to build on our historic strength in the field of science and innovation…and what better place to do this than surrounded by the wonderful exhibits I have just had the chance to admire…exhibits that offer us a glimpse of the possibilities that lie ahead for the human race. And may I congratulate all those whose hard work helps spread awareness of these possibilities to our fellow citizens and to our children.

2. I understand that this is the first international event to take place here at the museum, so I thank my hosts for extending me this honour. Indeed it is a double honour, for I know what a prestigious audience I am addressing. I am told that the National Academy of Sciences has no less than 180 Nobel Prize winners amongst its members… so I can only be relieved that I am here to underline the need to support scientific excellence.

3. It is appropriate, too, that I am discussing this here in the United States: the development of our science policy has been strongly influenced by the US experience – by the dynamism of your economy, and by the success with which scientific excellence is tapped and translated into economic growth.

The importance of science

4. Science is rightly regarded as part of the bedrock of all the world’s great civilisations. It was, after all, the application of farming techniques in ancient Mesopotamia that enabled the first food surpluses to be created and the first communities to form. Our celebration of Greek and Roman culture reflects our wonder at their scientific insight, not least in the realms of mathematics and geometry, which owed much to the Nile basin of Africa. And of course scientific advance and innovation took place among the Indian, Chinese and- let it not to be forgotten- Islamic civilisations.

5. These and more recent contributions to science have provided us with unprecedented growth and prosperity, have revolutionised the way we communicate, have taken us beyond our own planet to contemplate the mysteries of our universe. As the pioneering work of immunologist and molecular biologist Marian Koshland herself reminds us, science is also central to advances in human health and well-being.

6. If we are to tackle effectively the global challenges of the future- aging populations and rising healthcare costs, global warming and the development of sustainable energy supplies, the persistence of abject poverty and hunger amidst unprecedented wealth and plenty, and the continuing ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is destroying families and communities across Africa and leaving millions of orphans in its wake- if we are to tackle these and other challenges, we must recognise our dependence on scientific advance.

7. We must also harness this potential for our own economic good. As we face the challenges of globalisation, as traditional industries are transformed and new industries such as nanotechnology created, as lower-value added work it outsourced abroad, we need to ensure our countries remain at the forefront of the global economy. Only in this way can we compete effectively in high-value added sectors and reap the many economic benefits this can bring.

8. Of course, economic growth does not solve all our nations’ problems. The role of social scientists is critical here. Their work has underpinned so many of our government’s policies in the UK, from the goal of eliminating child poverty to the effective introduction of a national minimum wage. Creating a fair and just society needs not just political will, but also the knowledge and evidence-base that only a rigorous scientific input can bring.

9. All these ways in which we as a society benefit from science- social, economic, cultural- must be recognized and celebrated. Only if we do this will the field attract the youth and intelligence that it needs to drive scientific advance into the next generation. And only if we do this will we tackle head-on negative emotional responses to science. Whether these feelings stem from false antitheses- religion versus science; the environment versus technological advance- or from a simple misunderstanding of the impact of scientific advance, we are silent on the virtues of science at our peril.

10. There will of course always be debate, and rightly so, about the nature and extent of the constraints that should be put on scientific endeavor, and we can see these debates in full flow here in the US on the ethics of stem cell research and in Europe on the impact of GM crops. But while we must never fall in to the trap of suggesting that simply because something is possible it is necessarily desirable, we must not forget the wider picture of the impact science has made to mankind. Progress is an opportunity, not a threat. In the words of Stephen Jay Gould, that great populariser of science, “Science is an integral part of culture. It is not some foreign thing, done by an arcane priesthood. It is one of the glories of the human tradition.”

The UK’s contribution to science

11. We in the UK are well placed to be aware of the advantages scientific endeavour can bring. We rightly pride ourselves on our scientific past, a past that embraces both Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. The award of three Nobel prizes for science last year underlines the fact that we have more Nobel prizewinners in science than in any other country except America. We are second only to this country in terms of the volume and influence of our scientific publications. And on the productivity and citations per researcher, UK research delivers more than any other G8 nation- a remarkable achievement.

12. We can see the impact of this contribution all around us, from the world’s first steam engine and railway to the supersonic jet and hovercraft, from the creation of mass production in the cotton factories of the North of England to the development of biotech clusters in Oxford, from the discovery of the structures of penicillin and insulin by Dorothy Hodgkin, to the work being conducted on stem cell research, where the UK is at the forefront of international progress.

13. In light of all these achievements, it is perhaps of no surprise that in the recent national popular poll to find out who British citizens felt to be “the greatest Britain that ever lived”, of all the categories of achievement, no fewer than three who reached the top ten (Darwin, Newton and Brunel) were scientists- though the overall winner (Winston Churchill) was, I’m very glad to say, a politician.

Challenges facing the UK

14. But the economic reality of which I spoke a moment ago does not allow room for complacency. Great challenges lie ahead, and I would like to share with you my take on what the UK is doing to ensure that we meet those challenges head on. I would like to touch on four themes: encouraging innovation, developing skills and the flow of talent, creating an effective European science base, and, finally, ensuring effective collaboration in the field of scientific endeavor.

Encouraging innovation

15. Importantly, we want to ensure that the UK fully capitalises on the excellent science it produces.

16. To encourage innovation, we want to organise and fund our science base in order to ensure we make the most of crosscutting research. We need to break down the barriers between traditional disciplines, attract the best scientists and engineers, and encourage links between universities, and between universities and business.

17. Indeed, often, the most exciting areas of science are found at the interface between traditional disciplines such as information technology, healthcare and cognitive sciences. One result of this new approach is the creation of university centres that combine many physical and social science departments.

18. In the UK we are also keen to make better commercial use of our academic output. We know that an immediate problem is that UK businesses invest proportionally less in R&D than our major international competitors. This is why we have extended tax breaks to businesses conducting R&D activities – support that is now worth over £500 million pounds a year.

19. At the end of last year, a review was published into the ways of improving both the push from our science base of research and ideas, and the pull from businesses demanding the ideas for innovative products or processes.

20. The review concluded that greater collaboration can bring significant benefits to both businesses and universities – and that these benefits can feed through to the economy as a whole. It recommended a greater role for our regional development agencies in facilitating knowledge transfer. It suggested the development of new forms of formal and informal networks between business people and academics – including the establishment of a business-led R&D employer’s forum. And it recommended a new funding stream for business-relevant research in universities and research establishments- areas we are now exploring.

Skills and the flow of talent

21. All of these issues are undeniably important ones. And yet underlying all of them is the vital factor of the stock and flow of scientific skills in the first place.

22. The availability of highly skilled people with research training – and the extent to which researchers are employed within industry – are both areas in which the UK wants to make more progress. At the moment, for example, only a quarter of a percent of our population can be classified as a researcher – compared to 0.4% here in the US. Moreover, while the figure here is rising, there has been little change in the last decade for the UK.

23. Science needs to be seen as relevant. Young people at school need to find science and engineering subjects both stimulating and rewarding. This will be crucial in increasing interest in the physical sciences – especially among girls and ethnic minorities who are under-represented in such subjects.

24. We know that fewer and fewer pupils are choosing to study areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the high school equivalent and beyond – and we need to halt this trend. Between 1995 and 2002 the number of people leaving school at 18 with a qualification in mathematics fell by 6 per cent, and the numbers receiving university degrees in physical sciences and engineering fell by 8 per cent.

25. Together with schools, colleges and universities, the Government has a role to play in ensuring that sufficiently attractive opportunities exist for individuals to study science and engineering subjects.

26. In 2002, we launched a Science and Engineering Ambassadors Scheme, to create a resource of professionals from the fields of science, engineering and technology who available to work in schools… supporting teachers and inspiring pupils.

27. We have also introduced pay increases targeted on permanent staff in order to improve the attractiveness of careers in higher education. And we have provided additional funding to increase PhD stipends and post-doctoral salaries.

28. We believe this work is critical if – as a nation – we are to develop the skills we need to tackle the economic challenges that lie ahead.

European science and innovation:

29. We are also keen to drive forward the innovation and R&D agenda at the European level. Improving innovation performance is central to the EU’s goal to become one the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economies in the world by the end of the decade. We know this is challenging – and the US is one of our main competitors in this area. At the moment, the US continues to out-perform Europe on a number of indicators of innovative activity – such as patenting and the provision of early stage venture capital.

30. Two years ago the EU adopted an aspirational target for R&D investment to rise towards 3% of EU GDP by 2010. This target is likely to prove challenging even for those countries where R&D investment has increased significantly in recent years. And with two thirds of this new investment to come from the private sector, again we see that it is essential to create the right conditions for business investment.

31. The EU has adopted an action plan to back up this goal. And at the beginning of this year the UK, French and German Governments set out joint proposals for improving innovation performance across Europe. This emphasized the importance of national programmes operating within a more flexible European regulatory framework, and it set out a range of priority actions to strengthen intellectual property regimes, raise the levels of scientific skills, reduce the regulatory burden faced by innovative companies, strengthen the links between science and industry and improve access to finance.

Effective collaboration

32. This international collaboration brings me to my final theme. While we all, naturally, want to capture the economic benefits that “home-grown” research can bring, we must recognise the benefits of working together as an international scientific community.

33. The design of the Internet is an excellent example of this. Its creation was the result of collaboration and conflict among a remarkable variety of players, including government and military agencies on both sides of the Atlantic, computer scientists in academia and industry, telecommunications companies and network users. These various links- some planned, some serendipitous- lead to the development of the most dramatic revolution in telecommunications since the printing press.

34. The UK is committed to collaborating with centres of excellence. In the university sector there are collaborations between the UK’s Cambridge University and MIT, Stanford and Edinburgh, Oxford and Princeton & Cardiff and Miami – to name just four.

35. In the museum sector, the National History Museum in London, the principal UK institution in biological and mineralogical systematics, has joint research projects with the Smithsonian and the American Museum, and is working on promoting biodiversity with the Missouri Botanic Garden. Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry just this month appointed as its Director a leading member of NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute. And London’s Science Museum has worked closely with both the Boston Science Museum and the Franklin Institute.

36. We must also collaborate with the developing world. We are absolutely clear that tackling the problems of the developing world requires more than just the application of scientific knowledge from rich countries to poor- it depends on capacity building and embedding a good science base and skills force within the country itself, particularly in areas such as engineering, IT and medical work. These “home-grown” skills are vital if development is to become truly sustainable.

37. To demonstrate this: in India, at independence more than half a century ago, Nehru requested Britain, America, Germany and Russia – for help in establishing four Indian Institutes for Technology. These institutions fast became the leading academic institutions in the country – creating several generations of world-class scientists, and supporting a number of key developmental markers, including the green revolution. Today, they continue to shine out as a beacon of excellence and as a source of great pride. Developing countries must drive change from within, and where we can act as a catalyst for this we have a duty to do so.

The 10 year strategy

38. It is in this context- an understanding of the economic, social and cultural value of science, an awareness of the UK’s historic strength in the field, and a growing awareness of a number of challenges faced if we are to maintain and enhance this historic strength, that the science agenda has moved firmly up the list of policy priorities in the UK. In fact, I’m pleased to say that, in the UK, this agenda comes with unprecedented support from the highest political levels. The personal support and commitment of both Tony Blair, and our Chancellor Gordon Brown, has been amply demonstrated. And at a National Science Week last month the Government launched a consultation on a national blue print for the future of British science- a consultation I will be leading on at Ministerial level, and which will be published this summer.

39. This blueprint includes our commitment to produce a 10-year investment plan for science – in order to provide the UK with the framework and investment for us to develop our ambitions for scientific excellence, to help us to create world class research, increase business support for R&D, tackle the skills issue and develop collaboration with partner funders.

40. I believe that the UK is, through these various agendas, demonstrating a committed and forward-looking approach to the development of our science and innovation policy.

41. Through our 10 Year investment plan, we believe we have the chance to reinvigorate a field in which we have long excelled. We also welcome your input into this plan. As I have already said, there is much we can learn from the US and from other countries. And one important aim of the UK science investment plan is for the UK’s world class research centres to be seen as the ‘partners of choice’ for universities and businesses around the world that are looking to build international research networks.

42. This returns me to an earlier theme–the importance of collaboration. Between countries; between academic institutions and research centres and between academia and businesses.

43. And last, but not least, through cultural exchange. Science as a cultural phenomenon is highly reliant on museums such as the Koshland. They inspire future generations of scientists, they promote ideas and the excitement of scientific achievement. They help us to experience a sense of the mystery that drives scientific thought.

44. And, in the words of one of your most famous members, Albert Einstein, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."